PacMan French Manicure!

After painting on black french tips, I was suddenly reminded of the classic computer game, PacMan - after wondering how to incorporate this idea into a manicure for a while, I took the plunge and turned it into a PacMan "funky french"!

I started with three coats of Miss Sporty Et Voila French Manicure Pink, and waited for it to dry completely before applying scotch tape, leaving the tips exposed. I then painted the tips with Claire's Black Polish, and removed the tape immediately to ensure that the lines were crisp. I added a blue line to the very tip using a blue Nail Art Pen from Ebay. Using a white pen, I then added small white dots, and painted the ghost shape in white. I painted over the white ghost shapes once they were dry, using a dotting tool and China Glaze Papaya Punch (Orange), Barry M Turquoise (blue), Barry M Red (red) and Models Own Pastel Pink (pink). After adding the eyes with Claire's Black and White Nail Art Pen, I added a coat of Seche Vite. Done!

I had this on for a couple of days, it was a good laugh! Basically the first "funky french" I've ever attempted, as I wasn't sure I really liked the whole 'look' of them  - but this was cool :D I did have a PacMan on the thumb, but smudged it before I could take the pictures unfortunately...what a diiiick!

Let me know what you think guys! Don't forget about my Apothica $25 Giveaway! You've still got 1 week to enter!

xxx

TAXI!

The name of my favourite yellow polish is Taxi! and it's by Miss Sporty. In keeping with the name, I thought I would add some inspired nail art!

I started with two coats of Miss Sporty Taxi! (which is brilliantly opaque for a yellow polish, if a bit thick and gloopy. This can be fixed with a drop of polish thinner, however), which only cost me £1.99 from Superdrug - nice. I then taped off the tips, painted them white, and removed the tape while they were still wet. Once dry, I re-taped the tips and added the checkered image from BM17 using Konad Black Special Polish. I added a coat of Seche Vite, and was ready to go! I had a bit of shrinkage on the nail, which is hard to tell from the photos, does anyone know why this could be?!

So what to do you think to the cab inspired manicure?! Is it something you would wear?

For those of you inquiring about the Giveaway winner, I am in the process of verifying entries, so please bear with me - when I know, you will know.

I hope everyone is well, and not got the Monday Blues too badly!

Barry M Dusky Mauve

Hello everyone! I'm back after the unplanned hiatus - Uni work had to take priority unfortunately! I am back with a vengence, though, and have a manicure using Barry M Dusky Mauve.
Dusky Mauve is a relatively new one from Barry M, and is a supposed dupe for Chanel's Paradoxal. It is a grey-ish taupe with a violet microshimmer - very pretty in the light:

I added the tip image from Bundle Monster Plate BM18, stamped with Catrice "Be my Millionnaire". Added Seche Vite topcoat, nd BOOM! Ready to go!

In other news (I feel like I need to issue some kind of formal news letter!)

1. Giveaway Winner will be announced shortly, now I've got time to verify the entries and pick a winner! Good Luck everyone, and thank you all so much for entering! there is A LOT of you!
2. The response to my Mario manicure was phenomenal!! 48 comments later, and without my submission, it was featured on celebrity nail artist Sophy Robson's Tumblr So So Fly Nails, as well on video-game humour website Dorkly, a sister site of College Humour :D
3. I am nearly at 600 followers, which is completely overwhelming! Wonderful!

Glad to be back! Watch out! (I will also do the weekly blog round-up tomorrow - so, so sorry for the delay!)

Nails Inc Lucky Dip Haul

Evening All! Sorry for the lack of post yesterday, I moved back to Nottingham from my my Uni house in Birmingham. Our postman in Birmingham must be some kind of crazy person, shoving all kinds of mail into our letterbox, just for funsies, as we very rarely receive the mail we are after in Brum. Because of this, I always get internet shopping sent to my Nottingham home - this means that I had a pretty good stash built up for me to open today! Yay! It was like my freaking birthday! Plus, you always get loads of bubble-wrap, which is half the reason I was excited - pop, pop, popppopopppp
My Nails Inc Lucky Dip Package was one of them, here are the polishes I received:-

From left to right we have:

• UV Topcoat and Basecoat - This was the only 'guaranteed' polish you received in the offer, and claims to lighten and brighten the nails, and protect from staining - can't wait to try out and review this one, as it's a bold claim!
• "Shoreditch High Street" - This is a deep raspberry colour, and I'm actually curious to see how it compares, colour-wise, with Barry M Raspberry, as they look very similar in the bottle.
• "Augustus Street" - This is a medium grey with a lovely, pearly silver shimmer and really shocked me when I tried it and it was Suede!  I don't mind the matte finish, but I wasn't expecting it. It was the first one I tried, and although a fan of matte polishes, I added a topcoat to restore the shimmer.
• "Upper Street" - a muted Turquoise cream, excited to try this one, especially as a base for some nail art - under the sea, anyone?!
• "Hans Road" - I really can't decide if its Red, Orange or Pink. It's got a fierce shimmer to it - not really my favourite type of polish, but it's definitely the most interesting one I received.
• I also had an eBay-purchased bottle of Seche Vite waiting for me - there really isn't enough good things to be said about the Holy Grail of all topcoats, it's haaamazing. SV dries so incredibly fast, protects against chipping like an absolute trooper, and has the most perfect glass-like, high-shine finish. GET YOURSELF ONE (if you don't already!)
• Sally Hansen "No More Breaks" - in an attempt to strengthen my weak, peely nails :( Anyone tried this? Is it any good?
• Came across a cheap Konad Special Polish on eBay and, as it's a staple polish for anyone into stamping, snapped it up - I've been struggling to find a regular high street white polish that is opaque enough to stamp with, for my liking.

So there we go! I have only tried Augustus Street and Seche Vite so far, but I'll be swatching them for you over the course of the week. All in all, I was pleased with the polishes I got in the lucky dip, would've been nice to see some paler colours, nudes or pastels, but I suppose that's why they call it a Lucky Dip! You can't choose! For the bargain that they were (£10 for the lot), I am not turning my nose up at them.
I also got a pack of 15 Nail Art brushes from eBay, they look great, ranging from fan brushes right down to the tiniest paintbrush and dotting tool you've ever seen! So long, toothpick, I'm a profesh now!

 As I previously mentioned, I tried Augustus street - sorry I didn't swatch it while it was still suede, I was too eager to get stamping and try out Seche Vite!

Sorry for the rubbish photography, I've not worked out the best place, with the light, is in my Notts house!

I stamped from BM21 using Claire's Black Nail Art Pen (Striper) and free-handed in the black tips with the same. Topped off with Seche Vite, the effect is smooth, hard and SO shiny! Love!

I got some Fimo Canes too, I'm a bit skeptical, but will definitely give them a try: -

Just a selection of the 100 I ordered - like the look of the fruities!

Which of the Nails Inc would you like to see next? Will you be partaking in the Lucky Dip offer next time it rolls around? 

Strawberry Picnic Nails

It was another lovely, bright sunny day yesterday, making me wish I was sat on the park having a picnic - this manicure would have to do instead!

ooooh I wish they had all come out as well as the index finger! The other two strawbs are looking a bit squished and deformed....Nails are SO tiny to draw on hahaha!

With Flash - Pesky Orange is very apt for this mani!

I made little picnic rug tips by taping them off and painting them white over a base of a shimmery Claire's polish. I then stamped with Barry M turquoise and MUA shade 16 from BundleMonster BM17. I stamped the shape of the strawberry (not the leaves) with Barry M Red off BM05. I tried stamping the Lemon image but was struggling to pick up a complete image (I think it was the Miss Sporty polish) so just freehanded them in the end, using Barry M Spring Green and Miss Sporty Taxi! I outlined using Claire's Black Nail Art Pen, and topped it off with Barry M 3-in-1 Topcoat.

I got some compliments on this, it was lovely to wear on a hot summery day! I cracked out the Raybans today and it felt sooooo good!

Let me know what you think, kids!

xxx

Gleek and Gypsy Nights.

 So my housemate is fantastic. As you know, I went home for the weekend and returned this evening to 2 lovely presents from Sophie, one of my favourite people with giant hair. One was a “glee” Easter egg, complete with Mug – which I’m thrilled about, one of our favourite things to do together is drink copious amounts of tea, eat copious amounts of chocolate, and spend a copious amount of time talking about Everything and Nothing. The other present was a “knit your own boyfriend” kit....which I'm not as thrilled about....hahaha!

Rubbish phone pic...but look at the size of that mug! Cheers, Sofa!!!

 On to the Manicure!! I recently acquired an interesting polish from Topshop called “Gypsy Nights” which is quite a sheer black with holographic glitter and flakies! I snapped it up; you don’t see flakies very often over here in the polish middle ages (UK!). I applied two coats of it over two coats of Claire’s Black polish, and then added a silver stripe at the very tip of my tips with Claire’s Silver Nail Art Pen. Topped it off with Barry M topcoat, and here are the results, as best as I could capture the glitter effects! 

Shiny shinnnnyyy

 You can't see the holo glitter tooo much here, but if you look at the pinkie, you can see the iridescence of the flakies in it.

I've seen some exciting effects created with flakies by adding a matte topcoat, so i decided to matte it up with Claire's Matt topcoat (which should be spelled "matte" - really bugs me haahah - I'm a fiendish English student/grammar Nazi!). Here we are:

With Claire's matte topcoat.

I liked the effect of the matte topcoat, it did, however, dull the holographic glitter, but I like that it's a bit different. i decided to keep it like this for a couple of days before I was boooorrreeeddd!!! I went to a 21st birthday party over the weekend for one of my best friends, I've known her since she was a tiny babba, and it was lovely to see in this milestone together - love you Rachie poops. I'll post my party manicure tomorrow!

Another exciting installment - my bundlemonster plates arrived! WOO HOOOOO now I can start this Konading business properly!! Look out!!!